Advancing Methods in Entrepreneurship Education Impact Research: The Benefits and Limitations of Register Data

Abstract

With the increasing introduction of entrepreneurship education, supported by governments and policymakers, questions on their effect have occurred. Thus, several studies on their impact have also emerged over the years. However, many of these studies have issues related to control groups, students’ self-selection into the education, unclear objectives and vague descriptions of the education, or no contextual considerations in the studies’ design. In addition, although there have been many calls for studies investigating behavioural outcomes over a longer timeframe, few studies have answered the calls. As a continuous evaluation of graduates in many instances would be costly and time-consuming, not to mention the difficulty of obtaining a sufficient response rate over time, a potential source for evidence is register data, for instance, from public records. In this conceptual paper, I discuss the issues of the current evaluation practices of entrepreneurship education before the use of register data is introduced in consideration of long-term evaluation and common methodological issues. I present potential evaluation examples using register data on a particular program in entrepreneurship. The potential benefits and limitations of using such data are addressed, along with potential avenues for future research using register data in entrepreneurship education impact research.